Abstract

Numerous efforts are implemented to manage conflicts over wolves with the implicit aim to predict, gain control, and resolve them. Yet conflicts over wolves tend to persist in practice. Based on Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory, we aim to explain this persistence by considering conflicts over wolves as evolving unities of persisting and contradicting communications. Using a case study in Redes Natural Park, Spain, we illustrate how conflicts over wolves evolve semi-independently through internal and external communications. These communications can both fuel and redirect the complex trajectories of conflict, thereby contributing to its persistence over time. Taking lessons from this case, we propose alternative interventions that do not necessarily aim at resolving conflicts, but instead consider an open-mindedness toward the multitude of conflict observations and experiences; the need to follow and monitor the enduring lives of conflict over wolves; and the prudence of overly managing these conflicts at a distance.

摘要

为了解决狼的冲突，人们进行了许多努力，其隐含目的是预测，控制和解决狼。然而，狼冲突在实践中往往会持续存在。基于尼古拉斯·卢曼（Niklas Luhmann）的社会系统理论，我们旨在通过将狼冲突视为坚持和矛盾交往的不断发展的统一体来解释这种坚持。通过在西班牙雷德斯自然公园的案例研究，我们说明了狼的冲突如何通过内部和外部交流半独立地发展。这些通信既可以助长冲突的复杂轨迹，又可以使其重定向，从而有助于其随着时间的推移而持久。从该案例中汲取教训，我们提出了不一定旨在解决冲突的替代干预措施，而是考虑对众多冲突的观察和经验持开放态度；有必要跟踪并监测狼冲突的持久性；谨慎地远距离管理这些冲突。